I thought there was an option in phpBB to force new registrants to enter letters and/or digits from an image stored on the server and displayed when the member registers.....
Surely this should suffice ...

mjeveritt wrote:I thought there was an option in phpBB to force new registrants to enter letters and/or digits from an image stored on the server and displayed when the member registers.....
Surely this should suffice ...

The VISUAL CONFIRMATION (VC) has been enabled on this forum for over 6 months, but hackers busted through that like everything else. They have bots that can 'read' the images and enter the signup info in the forum in less than a second. The bots signup at thousands of forums, then process the confirmation emails or the rejections, all done automatically. Honestly, the VC only hinders real humans from registering.

The phpBB web site has several mods that users are working on to stop the bots. Renier is comtemplating which one to use on this forum. There are easily over 100 signups weekly that aren't real users.

A few real users' accounts have been deleted by me by mistake, so a new section has been opened up to GUEST POSTING so that any real person having problems can let it be known. There should be more changes taking place, however those changes shouldn't affect users already registered.

Renier has installed a MOD to the forum that only lets new users register if they have an invitation passcode.

There is a invitation passcode that is openly displayed on the PopTray Forum. A new user can enter that invitation passcode into the Registration Page when they register.

In addition to that invitation passcode, each member is given a predetermined number of invitations to pass out to friends they would like to join this forum.

It is similiar to the way GOOGLE gives out email accounts. If a member gives out an invitation, the member's invitation count is reduced by 1.

Members wishing to provide invitations to their friends should look to the top of the forum pages for a link labeled 'INVITE A FRIEND' followed by a number indicating their remaining invitations left. Clicking that link will open another page where the member should enter their friends email address, enter a subject and a short message to the friend to ask them to join the forum. Then click SUBMIT and the rest is handled automatically.

The friend will receive an email message with a link to click to take them to the Registration Page and the invitation passcode will be automatically entered. They can then provide their personal info, password and etc to complete the registration.

Notification of registration by a new member, including the new members username and the member giving the invitation, is handled through a PM to the Admin. The member giving the invitation is also notified by PM when someone accepts one of his invitations.